Many have forecasted the upcoming 13th General Election will mark the end of MCA seeing as the party has lost its grip on the Chinese voters who had swung to DAP. The way things are going it’s hard to believe that MCA will be able to rise from its poor results in their last outing in the 2008 elections.

However, to dismiss MCA altogether would not be realistic. MCA still have the power to turn things around under its Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. For one, the 62-year old Chinese-based party is the second largest party in the BN coalition so it has the experience, resources and high-caliber leaders as well as strong grass root supporters.

Looking at MCA’s current predicament, its president Chua Soi Lek has a huge uphill battle in convincing his party members that he has the vision that will uplift the party. A sex scandal would be detrimental to a Malay politician, however, it is not so in Chua’s case. After all, he had stepped down from all party posts after his sex video came out in the open but only to be reelected as party president shortly after. The ‘promotion’ in itself was also controversial but, whether we like it or not, this proves that Chua still have a lot of supporters even after his sex scandal were exposed. That’s the difference between the Malays and the Chinese. For the Chinese, it’s all about the work rate and results. For many of them, if a leader is known to have a vice, that’s their business so long as they are an effective leader is what matters most. For the sake of argument, you can look at this way: Winston Churchill is known to be a heavy drinker and had (at least) one mistress; meanwhile, Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian who doesn’t drink. Bill Clinton would be another political leader who pretty much got away with having a sex scandal exposed (and he lied by not admitting that he had sex with his then intern Monica Lewinsky at first).

Chua has seen it all. He started his career in politics when he was first elected as a state assemblyman for Penggaram, Johor under the MCA's ticket in 1986. He then continued to serve Penggaram for 18 years through four consecutive state elections. In the 2004 general election, he contested for the Labis parliamentary seat under the BN coalition and claimed victory. The then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi appointed Chua into the Malaysian cabinet as the Minister of Health following that victory.

He held several prominent posts throughout his later career. He was the Member of Parliament for Labis, the MCA vice-president, Johor MCA state liaison committee chairman as well as Batu Pahat MCA division chairman until he resigned from all public and political offices on January 2, 2008 following his sex scandal which was exposed though a video recording.

Many believed Chua’s days as a politician was over following the exposure of the sex video, however, MCA members had proved otherwise. Chua’s dignity to come forward and admit his relationship with his ‘special friend’ proved what kind of leader he is. Coming clean on his extramarital affair really paid off and this was proven in the party election. The whole affair resulted in MCA holding an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to challenge Ong Tee Keat's presidency and reinstate Chua as a member and deputy president of MCA on October 10, 2009.

In the EGM, number of resolutions was made challenging Chua’s removal from MCA and his sacking as deputy president of MCA. In the end, a vote of no confidence against Ong was passed (total of 14 votes). In the other resolution, Chua's expulsion was also overturned. Ong and Chua both refused to resign, and united under a "greater unity plan". By this time, it was obvious that Chua’s sex video was a political persecution ploy against him.

Although Chua was elected as party president he refused to seek a ministry’s post. He said the reason for the decision is that he was wanted to focus more on improving the party’s performance and credibility. Since then, Chua have been busy rebuilding the party and strengthening its unity after a year or so of infighting. Although, MCA’s Sarawak outing didn’t prove to be as fruitful as they had hoped for, the party remains strong in the inside and have been working hard in deterring all negative media coverage on them.

Chua also managed to gain support from the other BN leadership. Recently, the BN President Najib Razak himself had expressed his confidence in Chua and MCA stating that he is certain that Chua is a winnable candidate come GE13.

Chua has also been very bold to suggest things that other BN component party members wouldn’t dare to suggest. He recently made a statement saying that the BN government under Najib’s administration is not yet perfect and that its component parties should have an equal voice to raise issues affecting the people to ensure it is the coalition of choice. No other BN leaders would have dared to say that. And this is one of the reasons, despite all that had happened, Chua remains close to MCA members’ heart.

Despite everything that has been thrown at him, veteran leader Chua must have accepted them as part and parcel of being a politician and that is why he is on top of the game when it comes to handling all the issues related to his position wisely, if not perfectly. Chua has shown the Malaysian political scene that you can be at the lowest point of your career but through hard work and perseverance one day you will come out on top and smile again.

*The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer.